Albany Park apartment proposal has critics

Some Northeast Side residents fought a developer's plan to bring in two big-box stores, including a Target, five years ago.

Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch

Some Northeast Side residents fought a developer’s plan to bring in two big-box stores, including a Target, five years ago.

So Casto Development scaled down the project near Hamilton and E. Dublin-Granville roads and put buffers between an office development and the Albany Park neighborhood. Target owns a parcel there but still hasn’t built a store.

Now Casto wants to begin another phase that would include apartments, and some area residents are again fighting the proposal. They say the housing would increase traffic, be too close to their neighborhood and bring too many new students into the New Albany-Plain schools.

The company is asking for zoning changes for 116 acres southeast of the intersection of Hamilton and E. Dublin-Granville roads.

The Northland Community Council will hold a hearing on the rezoning request at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Minerva Park Community Center, 2829 Minerva Lake Rd. The Columbus Development Commission will consider the request on March 8. The Columbus City Council will have the final say.

The council rezoned 324 acres nearby in 2007 to allow stores, offices, some multifamily development and parks.

Casto wants to build more offices and stores on the 116 acres as well as single- and multifamily housing. The first phase likely would be apartments, said Charles Fraas, the vice president of development for Casto.

Fraas said 24 acres would be set aside as a “preservation area.”

Cheri Lehmann, an Albany Park resident who fought the initial developments in 2007, said she is concerned about the number of students the new housing would bring to the schools. She is a New Albany-Plain school board member.

Bill Resch of the Friends of the Rocky Fork Watershed said the buffers Casto has proposed for 9 acres of wetlands are inadequate. The area drains into the Rocky Fork Creek.

But Fraas said the buffers on the site exceed federal requirements. “We’re not touching the wetlands,” he said.

Not everyone is against the plans. Robert Thurman, the president of the Albany Park Homeowners Association, said Casto has worked to create an acceptable development.